Apr 8, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
A couple weeks ago I was reading in Matthew 11 — Â very familiar verses, where Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” These are some of those verses you’ve heard over and over again, but sometimes you stop to think a little bit more about it, and suddenly the Lord opens up a fresh revelation for you.
My first revelation came from the discovery that (far from being a farm girl, this was new for me) the yoke was a double harness in which two animals pulled together. Often, one harness was larger and meant for the stronger, more experienced animal, while the smaller was used for the animal being trained. That’ll preach. We can try to grab hold of some really big yoke and start tugging away, or we can give the big load to Jesus, and just pull the weight we’re meant to. We don’t take off every responsibility and do whatever we want — we are yoked to Jesus, working with Him, living the way He would live, doing what we see Him doing.
After this, the Lord helped me to think about comparing yokes, and gave me a few thoughts. There is a yoke that this world would like for you to burden yourself with, and then there is the easy, light yoke of Jesus. Â Examples:
1. Hospitality
- The (Southern American) worldly yoke — everything is perfectly neat and tidy, you go over and above to the point of stressing yourself out, and you work to the point of exhaustion in order to ‘entertain’ your guests — which perhaps means you never enjoy them.
- Jesus’ yoke — you welcome people into your home, with kindness and graciousness, and you take care of them.
2. Clothing
- World – you have to have the newest, latest fashions, styles, colours and trends. If you’re female, it’s a good idea to show off your assets to the best of your ability in order to make yourself as attractive as possible, no matter the cost. Spend in excess to look good.
- Jesus – Dress in moderation. Buy clothes that will last you a while, don’t spend all your money just to stay on top of the latest trends.
3. Food
- World – either starve yourself in order to be super skinny and look “good” OR cook too much at every meal and end up throwing some away, spend time going over the top on cooking extravagant meals, OR let food be your comfort when nothing else will.
- Jesus – Eat reasonably, eat sensibly, eat healthily.
Obviously, the basic principle that emerges from thinking about Jesus’ yoke is to do things in moderation, with gentleness, with humility. The list of course goes on to what car you might choose to drive, what house you might live in, and on and on. Â At this point I thought, “next subject.” But (if you remember the scene from Hitch where Albert says that after showing Hitch his dance moves), perhaps you might need to listen to the teacher a little longer before you think you’ve got it covered.
Not long before this lesson, a pastor visiting from Taiwan had spoken a word of encouragement to me. You love to serve the Lord. You love to work and carry a burden for the Lord. But you need to take the time to find out which burden you are supposed to carry. Great, I thought. Before I start committing myself to lots of new things now that I have free time after setting down my PhD, I will consult the Lord and seek His wisdom for which burdens I’m meant to pick up.
However, a week or two later, some circumstances led me to begin taking on a concern, a worry which began to burden my soul and make me feel heavy, even gloomy for a while. When I finally brought this to the Lord, and began to consider it with — not a ‘worldly’ perspective but a “what does Jesus’ yoke look like?” perspective, the Lord brought it to my attention that, far from using discernment to take on the burden of which tasks He wanted me to do, I had taken on the burden of concern, and of worry, which is perhaps even more important for me to give over to the Lord than anything else.
What you’re doing will take up your time and your talents, but what you’re worrying about will take up your heart, and your mind, and tug them away from faith, and hope, and the love of God. Cast your cares on the Lord, for He cares for you. (I Peter 5:7)
For every yoke we have, we have Jesus, the stronger of the two of us, who can pull the weight, and help us to see how to navigate the challenge. And the yokes that we place on our hearts, and perhaps the most important ones to submit to Him.
The sermon in a nutshell: Get hitched to Jesus! He’ll carry the weight, and show you how to walk it out, whatever ‘it’ may be.
xCC
Apr 5, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word
Does anybody else find that they sometimes struggle with this mindset? How often do you remind yourself “God is good. All the time.” (a la the Starbucks Church Marketing Video I previously posted) — but something rubbish happens — big or small — and you find yourself saying “Lord, what the deally, Yo?”
I’m suddenly more acutely aware of this mindset lately — when things are going so well, God is sooo good. Or maybe you just think, yay, life is good. And then you miss your bus, or a situation in your life goes from smooth to rough and tumble, and you think, “Hmm, Lord, are you trying to discipline me?” or “Are you mad at me?” or “Why hast thou forsaken me!?!” Yes, you believe God is good, whole-heartedly, but there is still some piece of you that questions what “goodness” looks like when things aren’t looking so good for you.
Our work here in Edinburgh has become increasingly difficult, especially over the last few weeks. To go into detail about this would not be appropriate, but suffice it to say things are tough spiritually, financially, and in our work situation. These life moments are the ones where the rubber hits the road, and praise God, you have the opportunity to (continuing with the fun idioms) put your money where your mouth is and live out what you believe. Is God still good if things aren’t going my way?
The goal: really finding the deep-rooted, whole-hearted mindset to believe that God is good all the time — I believe this comes from having the mind of Christ. In Romans 12:2, Paul encourages us not to be conformed to the image of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind — so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
So as we focus our minds not on earthly things, but on things above (Col. 3:2) and we destroy the strongholds and high things — the wrong thought patterns — that exalt themselves against the knowledge of Jesus (2 Cor. 10) our mind is renewed, and made more like Jesus’ mind. We think about things the way Jesus would, and we begin to recognise, number one, that God’s will is always good, and number two, what God’s will actually is.
Moments like these, which once seemed like trials, are starting to look more like opportunities to me. They are opportunities for me to walk through something challenging, and come out on the other side, with more of myself and my old ways chiseled away, looking more like Jesus.
Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing. If I have a better understanding of what the Father is doing, as my mind is renewed and I begin to better understand His nature and His will, then I have a better chance of following Jesus’ example, and doing the work here on earth that the Lord put me here to do. Praise God for moving me toward looking at this life through the lenses of eternity — where it won’t matter how much money I made or how my hair looked, but it will matter if I told other people about my good good God, so that we can spend eternity together.
xCC
Apr 2, 2009 | Stories, Top Ten Lists
A friend of mine and I have been chatting about the food budget recently, hence the kitchen inspiration…
When Mark and I first got married, I continually asked his advice about whether water was boiling or not. I was okay in the kitchen but not great. Â We’ve been married almost two years now, and I’ve learned a few things that have made my time in the kitchen a bit more enjoyable. And hopefully made dinner time a bit tastier.
10. A watched pot never boils. A forgotten pot boils over and makes a big mess.
9. Pay attention to the recipe you’re doing! You don’t have to follow it exactly, but (bless Mark’s heart) I’ve produced some funky cuisine simply because I got distracted and put the wrong things in at the wrong time.
8. Creativity counts for something. Leftovers can be amazing new creations with a little thought and a little love. There’s a lot to be said for old bread. I’ve made tasty appetizers and salad croutons with the end pieces of last week’s loaf.
7. Rosemary is my favourite … besides brown sugar, smiling and of course bacon. I’m buying it in bulk now. If it’s not supposed to be sweet, it might just taste better with a little rosemary.
6. Give your husband some credit. He does have ideas that can make kitchen life easier.
5. If you have a baby, pureeing and freezing large amounts of baby food in ice trays is the way forward. We’ve saved so much money and gotten Asher to eat the real thing that way!
4. Double up and do yourself a flavour. For a lot of meals I’ve been cooking twice the amount and freezing half of it for another night. This has saved so much money and been super handy. Instead of feeling like you should eat more so you won’t have so many leftovers, you save it for next week or the next emergency. Great for spaghetti sauce and chili.
3. You’re right, Mom — washing dishes as you go along does make cooking time better.
2. When in doubt, don’t throw it out. Alternative uses for old stuff always seem to pop up — baking banana bread with very ripe bananas, throwing old veggies into a pot with chicken stock — and I haven’t killed anybody yet!
1. Always set a timer. You might think you can remember you have something in the oven, but then your Mom calls and ten minutes later you’ve burnt your buns.
xCC
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